Jim Hanks
Well-known member
"New to me" anyway. I started a thread a few weeks ago about getting a bass uke for recording some more "organic" bass parts for my projects. After a good bit of research and a trip to the big box stores (Guitar Center/Sam Ash), I concluded that I wanted a solid body, did not want Thundergut strings, and did not mind up to about 23" scale. After a little more googling, this one popped up on talkbass.com and after a brief exchange with the seller, I jumped on it. It did have Thunderguts (probably the originals from the factory), but I had planned to replace with the flatwound set made by Labella exclusively for Gold Tone. The strings themselves were $47 shipped but I felt I was still in for what seemed a very fair price for a 3-year old instrument with minor cosmetic damage.
The bass arrived before the new strings so I had time to hook it up to my Reason rig for a recording test. If worked fine, but I didn't bother trying to dial in any tones since I still did not care for the Thunderguts. After the strings arrived is when the real "fun" began.
The was one of the few times in recent memory that YouTube failed to provide instructional material. I found install guides for the Thunderguts and the round wound Silverbacks, but I was concerned the flat wounds could have some notable differences and they did. I'll be writing up my own findings soon on my blog and perhaps YouTube, but just to summarize here, I was able to get it sorted with a combination of pointers from our own kohanmike, Gold Tone customer support, common sense, and trial-n-error. It still isn't "perfect" but with minimal difficulty I have the action down to 2.7-3mm and intonation within 10c at the 12th fret. This should be good enough for my purposes, and I think going for any better would involve nut and saddle work with a pretty high screw up factor.
Now I'm not a bass player and I don't like wound strings in general, but I'm getting used to flatwounds on my guileles, and the feel of these La Bella strings is so much better than either Thunderguts or Pahoehoes. I hope to dial in some tones soon and post some sound samples.
But for now, these pics will have to do.
The bass arrived before the new strings so I had time to hook it up to my Reason rig for a recording test. If worked fine, but I didn't bother trying to dial in any tones since I still did not care for the Thunderguts. After the strings arrived is when the real "fun" began.
The was one of the few times in recent memory that YouTube failed to provide instructional material. I found install guides for the Thunderguts and the round wound Silverbacks, but I was concerned the flat wounds could have some notable differences and they did. I'll be writing up my own findings soon on my blog and perhaps YouTube, but just to summarize here, I was able to get it sorted with a combination of pointers from our own kohanmike, Gold Tone customer support, common sense, and trial-n-error. It still isn't "perfect" but with minimal difficulty I have the action down to 2.7-3mm and intonation within 10c at the 12th fret. This should be good enough for my purposes, and I think going for any better would involve nut and saddle work with a pretty high screw up factor.
Now I'm not a bass player and I don't like wound strings in general, but I'm getting used to flatwounds on my guileles, and the feel of these La Bella strings is so much better than either Thunderguts or Pahoehoes. I hope to dial in some tones soon and post some sound samples.
But for now, these pics will have to do.